Six '60s Space TV Series Intros, in All Their Unscientific, Non-Entertaining Awfulness

The Sixties were the Space Era, when astronauts were all anyone was talking about, except for dirty hippies and their loud music.

TV was eager to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, TV-series production wasn't as high-budget or sophisticated as it is today, so the results could be somewhat....tacky? Disappointing? Incredibly stupid-looking?

All of the above?

Some of these shows live on in fond memories; others have blessedly been forgotten. Here are six, with some leniency on the whole "sixties" thing, that you may be amazed to discover attracted viewers.

6. It's About Time
Created by the guy who gave us Gilligan's Island, this was totally different from that series because here it was only two people stranded, and they were astronauts.

3) This episode above was directed by Richard Donner, who went on to direct Superman, Lethal Weapon and the Goonies. We'd say "that's just not right," but he did also direct several episodes of The Banana Splits.

5. Lost in Space
No footage of the actual opening seems to be readily available on the Web, so here's one guy sprucing it up for modern viewers, beginning at about the one-minute mark.

There's not really a lot to spruce up, since it seems to consist wholly of a room-service plate and cover floating against an incredibly cheap background with tacky lettering for the credits. (Mostly the passing stars get a bit brighter.)

This intro, back in the day, should have served as a loud warning that the special-effects budget for the series was smaller than the catering budget.